SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Autism Acceptance Month

Honourable senators, as many of you know, this month is Autism Acceptance Month, and families, researchers and leaders in the autistic community are once again here in our nation’s capital to gather for the Canadian Autism Leadership Summit.

It was an honour to speak there this morning, to see familiar faces and to reiterate the responsibility we hold within and beyond this chamber. As I told the delegates, we have successfully shifted the national conversation from awareness to acceptance. That is a hard-won victory for dignity and human rights. We no longer view neurodiversity as a flaw to be fixed but as a fundamental part of the Canadian fabric.

However, as I said there, acceptance cannot be the final destination. Acceptance without agency or the tools for a self‑determined life remains incomplete.

Many of us recall the moment three years ago when we voted for Bill S-203. It was a historic moment, a moment when Parliament spoke with one voice to create a national coordination framework that quite simply didn’t exist before. However, we have to be clear on what remains to be accomplished.

The autistic community has done its part. They have drawn up the blueprints and mobilized with urgency. Now the government must do the same. Whether it is addressing evaporating support at age 18 or fixing the economic absurdity of a 67% unemployment rate amongst autistic adults, the time for talk has passed. We must be the ones to ask: Where is the implementation?

As senators, we are voices for those the system too often overlooks. I will continue to be the government’s most enthusiastic partner when they match their promises with action. Until then, it falls to us to be the autistic community’s partners in oversight, advocacy and accountability and to keep holding the government’s feet to the fire until the promise of Bill S-203 reaches the front door of every family in this country: until the mother in Montreal no longer spends her nights fighting red tape just to get a basic assessment for her child; until the autistic adult in Calgary finally has a key to their own supportive housing unit; and until the young person in Halifax can transition out of high school, not onto a cliff of disappearing supports but rather a clear path for employment.

Colleagues, let’s keep the discussion going. I’m inviting you to join me, Senator Boehm and our colleagues Mike Lake and Michael Coteau at the reception we’re holding this evening. I hope to see many of you there.

Above all, I hope that at this time next year, we are no longer speaking about promises but about measurable, tangible results for autistic Canadians across this great country.

Thank you.